Vista 
Vista companies are optimistic about their business prospects, according to a study city officials and volunteers conducted.

Vista Mayor Judy Ritter touted the results at her state of the city speech Monday at the Vista Chamber of Commerce State of the Community Luncheon held at the Vista Civic Center. She also touched on the city’s soon-to-be-adopted updated general plan, which will guide the city’s development in coming years, and Vista’s plans to forge ahead with redevelopment in the blighted Paseo Santa Fe corridor, despite the statewide dissolution of redevelopment agencies.

For the business study — conducted as part of the Vista CAREs, Communicate and Assist to Retain and Expand, outreach program — about 60 people visited 235 businesses in Vista’s business park in September to ask how the city could help and how they expected their business to fare in the future. Of the 107 who responded to the survey, 61 percent expected to grow, and another 26 percent expected business to remain stable. About half the businesses surveyed said they expected to increase hiring in the next three years, and 37 percent expected their hiring to stay about the same. Six percent thought their business would decline and hiring would decrease.

When asked about challenges, many pointed to the economy, limited access to credit and regulation of their industries.

The city tries to make starting a business in Vista simple, and includes on its website a checklist of key steps for the job, said Kevin Ham, Vista’s economic development director.

Even with that resource, wading through departments and “doing the paperwork dance” in a city can be difficult, said Claudia Faulk, who co-owns Aztec Brewing Co. at 2330 La Mirada Drive, Suite 300, in the business park.

“It would be nice to feel if you were talking to one area (of the city) like you were talking to the whole city instead of just one section,” Faulk said.

Since opening in August, the company has added a second suite to its operation and expects to add a third within a year. The company also expects to hire.

“We’ve definitely been increasing sales steadily since we started,” she said. “We can sell as much beer as we can make.”

The park has about 800 businesses that employ 23,000 people, Ham said.

Many of the park’s facilities house corporate headquarters and don’t directly generate sales tax for Vista. But those businesses are still crucial for the city’s economic health, Ham said.

“The direct and the indirect impact from those individuals working and living in our community and throughout North County is tremendous,” Ham said.

City officials hope to conduct a similar survey in the Central Vista Business Improvement District and in the city’s retail center.